As 2017 gets underway, we were pleased to welcome health coach Katheryn Gronauer for a new and interesting perspective on the food we eat.

A lifelong yo-yo dieter who struggled with weight and body image, Katheryn started by inviting us to connect with her own experience. She shared the ups and downs she faced over the years, along with the ongoing feeling that she could never quite find the answers to create the body she most wanted.

She then asked us, in an activity, to reflect on our own eating habits, assumptions about food and our general state of health. It was fun to hear the conversations around the room as we each contemplated our own relationship with food.

We learned that moving to Japan was a catalyst for Katheryn to rethink her previous beliefs about food. In Japan, she was presented with so many new perspectives and observations – from the perplexing, “Why don’t you take a bath?,” to the most enlightening, “I think I’m eating and exercising like a sumo wrestler.” With all this new information coming in, Katheryn began to consider that perhaps there was more to food that she’d been taught.

The culmination of these life-altering discoveries sparked Katheryn’s interest in food energetics – the concept that understanding the nutritional and chemical make-up alone of food is not enough to teach us how to eat for our unique bodies and situations.

We were treated to a perspective on food that was quite different from what many of us had learned in the past. Katheryn demonstrated three major concepts including: the difference between expansive and contractive foods, the role of temperature in creating healthy balance and the importance of rate of digestion in meal planning.

What a delight it was to consider these new and different concepts! We were given the opportunity to think outside the box, to consider a new way of looking at our health and to reflect upon what may or may not be working about the way we eat.

Katheryn was an energetic and thoughtful presenter. We were pleased to have her and thrilled to have the chance to learn something new.